


Stacking Up Odds

by likingandloving



Series: Sweet and Bitter [6]
Category: Parks and Recreation
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-06
Updated: 2016-02-06
Packaged: 2018-05-18 12:48:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,402
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5929051
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/likingandloving/pseuds/likingandloving
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tomorrow, Leslie would ask Ben out for dinner and see if he was better than Dave. </p><p>Hopefully, of course, he says yes. </p><p>(Oh God, what if he didn’t say yes?)</p><p>(She’ll worry about it tomorrow.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stacking Up Odds

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! Here's the next chapter of the Sweet and Bitter series! Hope you like it and if you guys have any suggestions you'd like to see in the next chapter (it's the Ben/Leslie date!), please leave them in the comments below. 
> 
> And a kudos please, if you don't mind. (Hehehe)

Leslie is quick to sidestep to the right, ducking her head into the crowd of people gathering at the quad and slipping her hood over her head and hoping that Ben didn’t see her. Once class was over, she all but bolted from the classroom and was quick to weave into the sea of people that flooded the halls. 

She turns back, checking to see if a certain someone was following her down the hall and a rush of relief floods through her when Ben is nowhere in sight and holds her binders and book bag tighter to herself. 

Her phone vibrates in her pocket and she sighs when she sees that Ann was calling before sliding it open to answer the call. 

“Hello?” 

“Hey Les---“ 

“Look, I know you want me to call Ben, but can you give me like at least a day or two to work up the courage—“ 

“Leslie—“ 

“And I know that he’s my TA now for Hawthorne’s class which means I have to talk to him eventually and mind you I _have_ talked to him, wel, argue is a more appropriate word but—“

“Oh my God, Leslie—“

“But I really just want a chance to—“

“Leslie!”

“What?” Leslie asks, vaguely annoyed at the continuous interruption. 

“This is not about Ben, I’m trying to give you a heads up about—“ 

“Leslie.” A voice calls her name and tugs on her wrist, causing her to turn around and face whoever was calling her. Her eyes lock on a pair of very familiar brown eyes. 

“Oh my God.” 

He smiles sheepishly, shrugging as if his presence wasn’t a huge surprise. 

“Hi Leslie.” 

She blinks once, as if to reassure that he was here. 

How was he--?

Wasn’t he—?

She can’t think of what question to ask first, so she just goes for the obvious.

 _“Dave?”_ His head tilts and he smiles. 

“Surprise?” 

\---

“Why don’t you, uh—“ Leslie glances around the somewhat empty coffee shop and tries to ignore Donna and Tom’s suggestive looks from behind the counter. She pushes Dave to an empty seat by the counter and sits him down. 

“Just sit here and I’ll bring you coffee and we can talk about why you’re in IU right now.” 

“Whatever you’d like to do Leslie.” Leslie tries to give him a small smile as she quickly turns and walks behind the counter, trying to fish the apron from her bag and trying to ignore the burning stares and questions she knows is just dying to come from both Donna and Tom. 

She sighs and then motions with her hand that they could go ahead and ask. 

The questions start pouring from the two. 

“Is that _D-Dog?_ ”

“I thought he moved to San Diego last year?” 

“Oh my God, he’s still wearing his old Converse shoes. My eyes are burning.” 

“What is he doing here in Indiana?” 

“And he paired it with that shirt. This is a crime to all fashion.” 

“Are you getting back together with him?” 

Right. Her ex-boyfriend, who she had broken up with almost a year ago because he was moving to the other side of the country, was suddenly back in Indiana and she had no idea what it all meant. Leslie ties her apron behind her back before taking a deep breath. 

“No. At least I don’t think so. I don’t know.” 

Leslie glances back at Dave, who is patiently sitting at the table and carefully glancing around the coffee shop. What was he doing here? They had parted amicably, after realizing that a long distance relationship would never work. She knew that he was possibly coming back during winter break, but why now?

“Well, you should go talk to him.” 

Leslie nods, lump tight in her throat as she pours Dave a coffee. She slides it to him and he gives her a small smile before taking a sip. He grimaces for a moment but powers through in the way he always has when he was doing something she didn’t like and smiles. 

“What?” She asks. 

“You, uh, forgot. I don’t put sugar in my coffee.” 

Oh, right. She only realizes now that it’s turned into a habit; making coffee and popping a couple of sugars in the way Ben likes it. Dave takes his coffee black. She’s not fazed by the mistake. Instead, it sparks a small longing lingering in the back of her head, the events of the past still heavily on her mind as she winces in embarrassment at the memory of a hot chocolate soaked Ben. 

Wait. No time to think of Ben right now. Dave first. Focus on Dave first. 

“What are you doing back here in Indiana?”

“I’m, uh, here due to an interview I’m supposed to be attending this week. I wanted to join the police academy over here.” 

“Oh, wow. That’s great news, Dave.” 

“Yeah, so, I’m staying with a couple of my buddies in their apartment and I thought it would—it would be a good time to see you. You’re looking nice and well.” 

Not as of lately, but she doesn’t say it out loud at all.

“Thanks, Dave. That’s really sweet of you.” 

“If you have work, I can let you get back to it and then maybe tomorrow we can have a casual meal and catch up?” She thinks about it for a moment. It couldn’t hurt to just to have dinner with him. Plus, they did have sort of a good relationship. They parted on amicable terms. They could do dinner, right? 

“Uh, sure. You know what, that would be great, Dave. I’ll text you?” He nods, seemingly happy with the decision and pecks her cheek before leaving and excitedly expressing how great it was to see her. 

Leslie nods and says the same and gets back to work, trying to ignore the snickers from Donna and Tom.

\---

Dinner is great. Dave is nice and accomodating and even asks her if she wanted whipped cream on her cheesecake even if they don’t serve whipped cream on cheesecake. He doesn’t even point out that she hasn’t touched her food at all, instead choosing to feel the tense silence with mindless chitchat about his potential work and why he wants to be a police officer and if she knew that the trees in California were originally from Florida. (Which she actually did, but she didn’t tell him that.)

But she can’t, _can’t_ , concentrate on it all because her lips are burning and her mind is racing and it’s all because of Ben. 

Ben, Ben, _stupid_ Ben. 

She hates it, that Dave is being all gentleman-ly and sweet and she can’t stop thinking of some other guy. 

He drives her back to her dorm later that night and walks her to doorstep, hands clearly itching at his sides to reach out and touch her. Maybe she should just give him this, just let him hold her hand because she knows she’s been terrible company this entire night. However, she can’t bring herself to do it and just keeps her hands firmly tucked underneath her arms. 

Dave finally asks her what’s wrong when they get to the front of her dorm room. 

“Are you okay Leslie? You were awfully quiet during dinner and you kept touching your lips.” 

Had she? 

Her fingers reach up to ghost against her lips and she winces when she realizes what she’s done. 

“Sorry, Dave. I’ve just-- got a lot on my mind.” 

“Does it have anything to do with that guy I saw in the coffee shop earlier tonight?” 

Dammit. 

“Yeah, a little bit.” She wrings her fingers nervously. “It’s complicated.” 

“Is he bothering you? Do you need me to punch him in the face?” A rush of gratitude fills her suddenly because she’s glad that until now, he’d still do anything to protect her. She sighs, shaking her head. 

“What? No, Dave, it’s fine. He’s not bothering me.” 

Well, not in the way he was thinking at least. 

“Is he doing something to annoy you or something?” 

If you count always thinking of him and the fact that he had kissed her in a way that she’s sure she’s never going to forget, then yeah, it was annoying. 

“No. Honestly Dave, it’s nothing bad or anything.” Dave seems to believe this explanation and nods thoughtfully and she hopes he can’t see through the facade she’s been putting up. Maybe she should at least ask him why he’s here, because yeah, she knows that he’s here for school, but why have dinner with _her_?

“So why did you--“

“I’m still in love with you--“ 

Leslie freezes, trying to think for a moment if what she heard was right. He couldn’t have.

“You’re _what?_ ” She asks, eyes widening in surprise. 

“I’m still in love with you.” 

She blinks, clearly not comprehending that her ex-boyfriend is standing in front of her saying that he was still in love with her. 

“You’re in love with me?” 

He shrugs, sheepishly hanging his head. 

“Always have been.” 

“Dave, you can’t just say that you’re in love with me.” She exclaims, the panic rising in her tone. 

Oh God. He was in love with her. She resists the urge to groan because this is just what she needs right now; an ex-boyfriend who was in love with her and a potential boyfriend who she was trying to avoid. 

“Well, why not? It’s true and I feel it.” He points to his chest. “Right here.” 

“Look, Dave, we broke up a year ago. How can you still be in love with me?” 

“Because I am. Look, I’m not good with all the fancy words that you normally use, but I just know, okay?”

Leslie is not sure how to deal with all of this. With Dave looking at her like that, like he was just waiting for her to say ‘of course I’m in love with you too’ because she’s not sure she is anymore. Of course, they had history and frankly, she does remember how he was. Always so protective and trying so hard to be interested in what she was interested in and always so damn considerate. It was sort of hard _not_ to be in love with someone who was like that. She’s not sure how to deal with the fact that her lips were still tingling, every atom in her body screaming at the thought of how Ben had kissed her in the coffee shop. Strong yet gentle, demanding yet leading. He was just so exciting and smart and they had so much in common. He was something new, something to learn and discover. 

Leslie feels the frustration build in between her eyes and suddenly has the urge to scream. 

She just doesn’t know. 

So she does what she does best. 

“I have to go, Dave. Thank you for tonight.” 

And not letting him respond before opening her dorm door and slamming it shut. 

She rests her back against her closed door, blowing out a breath of frustration. First Ben, now Dave. Why couldn’t this be like high school, where she just wandered aimlessly without any boys noticing her? 

Frankly, she misses the days when there were no boys involved. 

\---

“Hold on.” Ann says, interrupting Leslie’s story mid-sentence. “So you’re telling me Ben kissed you and Dave told you he was in love with you? All in the _same night_?” 

“All in the same night. Like there was something weird in the air that just causes everyone to be attracted to me.” 

“Holy shit, Leslie.” Leslie sighs before draining the rest of her wine in one large gulp. 

“I know.” 

“What do you want to do?” Ann asks, already pouring more wine into Leslie’s empty glass. 

“I don’t know. I mean, it’s Dave. I remember being so torn about us breaking up and him moving because I did love him, but that was a year ago. It’s like I feel bad for moving on when he clearly hasn’t. But that’s just it. What if I just think I moved on? What if I actually am still in love with him?” 

“Are you?” Leslie groans, slamming her head against the back of her couch as Ann tuts disapprovingly. 

“I don’t know.”

“What about Ben?” Ann asks. 

“Ben is just... amazing. He’s smart, and sweet, and considerate. We have so much in common and when we talk, I know I can just talk to him about anything. And when he kissed me? God, Ann, he made me shake. He has such great hair and a cute face and a nice butt.” Until now, Leslie can’t stop thinking about that kiss. Was it normal to obsess this long over a kiss?

“Do you have any advice? I’m sure being that beautiful you’ve had to juggle at least three boys at once.” Ann looks at her weirdly. Leslie raises an eyebrow.

“Okay, _once_ , it was three.” Ann now is the one who takes the large gulp of wine. “But I didn’t end up with any of them and none of them were ex-boyfriends or kissed like a dream, so I’m about as inexperienced as you.” 

“Ann.” Leslie whines. “What do I do?” 

“Well, why don’t you go out with Ben?” Ann suggests. 

“Because of Dave.” Was she not listening? “What if I go for Ben and find out I’m actually still in love with Dave?” 

“No, I mean, just go on one date with him.” Ann says, a smile growing on her face as she puts down her glass. “You went on a date with Dave tonight, right? Go on a date with Ben and see how he stacks up against Dave. I mean, what if he has like a dealbreaker? Like a third nipple or hates whipped cream? If you get to know him more, maybe you won’t like him anymore.” 

“Oh my God, Ann, that’s brilliant.” Leslie squeals. “You gorgeous, brilliant starfish.” 

“Thank you.” Ann takes a small bow. “Now, I’m going to grab all of the romantic comedies we own and we’re gonna watch them and drink wine and think of all of this tomorrow.” 

Leslie nods, smiling because how did she end up with the best best friend ever? 

It was decided. 

Tomorrow, Leslie would ask Ben out for dinner and see if he was better than Dave. 

Hopefully, of course, he says yes. 

(Oh God, what if he didn’t say yes?)

(She’ll worry about it tomorrow.)

\---

The next day, Leslie doesn’t duck out of class in a hurry like she usually does. Instead, she lingers by her desk, pretending to rearrange her index cards (that she likes to keep arranged in alphabetical order) and she waits for the rest of the class to file out, murmuring to each other about the final project Hawthorne just announced. 

It isn’t long until it’s just Ben and Professor Hawthorne left in class, discussing next week’s syllabus. 

“Ah, Miss Knope, did you need anything?” Professor Hawthorne asks as he goes through their most recent papers. “Have any comments or arguments about today’s lecture?” 

“Uh, no, sir. I just wanted to talk to Ben, actually.” 

“Of course. If you’re going to argue about fiscal responsibility, just remember to tone it down.” Professor Hawthorne teases before winking at Leslie and telling Ben he could go for the night. Ben looks up briefly at Leslie, expression a little worried, before holding up the papers Hawthorne had handed him. 

“I’ll give these to you tomorrow. I’m sure I can have them graded by tomorrow.” 

“That’s fine, Ben. Now, you two have a good night.” They both nod, bidding their own goodbyes to the professor before walking out of class side by side in complete silence. It starts to really rile up Leslie’s nerves, all of her fears suddenly flooding back but it isn’t until they hit the quad that Ben speaks up. 

“Look, I’m sorry about kissing you, I didn’t know that you would be getting back together with your ex-boyfriend--“ 

“What?” Leslie asks, confused. 

“--so if you want me to leave you alone that’s completely fine I mean you can be happy with your cop boyfriend and I would have absolutely no problem with that. I mean, cops are heroes after all with saving people from burning buildings and getting cats from trees--“ Ben keeps walking briskly as Leslie struggles to keep up with his long strides. Was he trying to get away from her?

“I think those are firemen, actually. Ben can you not walk so--“ Leslie tries to grab his arm but he just keeps walking and talking, to her frustration. She wishes she knew a way to shut him up. 

Okay, maybe there was one way. 

But there was no way to do it if he kept walking. 

“--And it’s okay if he doesn’t want to see you with me cause I mean I just went and _kissed_ you and we haven’t spoken in two weeks and it wasn’t in my place but in my defense I really wanted to kiss you ever since that night in the coffee shop but--“ 

“You really wanted to kiss me?” She finally catches him, tugging on his arm and forcing him to stop and face her. He ducks his head, carefully glancing around and avoiding eye contact until he blows out a quiet breath and meets her eyes. 

“Of course I wanted to kiss you. It was all I could think about.” The way he answers, with a shy smile and the red creeping up his neck and into his cheeks, had Leslie’s stomach spinning and twirling. How could that smile be directed at her? She almost feels like she doesn’t deserve to see him smile like that, not after foolishly avoiding him for two weeks with absolutely no explanation. 

“But you were avoiding me so I didn’t know what to think about that, so at least not I know why.” 

“No, _no._ ” Leslie says, her hands reaching for his. “I was avoiding you because I didn’t want to hear that you didn’t want to date me after the disaster that happened in the coffee shop. You left early and I thought--“ 

“I left early because the milk was starting to cause things to... stick.” He wrinkles his nose and sticks out his tongue and God, he was too cute for his own good. 

“So, I got your post-it.” Leslie reaches for a crumpled purple post-it in her pocket and Ben chuckles nervously, dropping her hands. 

“I forgot that I left that.” He says, reaching for it and smoothening out. 

Except, it wasn’t the post-it he had written. 

_You can kiss me after dinner._

_Tomorrow, 7:30._

He glances up at her, head cocking before he reads the note again. 

“Is this--?” He trails off, question evident. 

“Pick me up tomorrow at 7:00. We can have dinner wherever you want as a sorry for the way I’ve been acting the past month.” She reaches up and tugs on his hand, squeezing it softly. 

“What do you say? Sound good?” 

Ben’s mouth slants for the briefest moments of times before the corners start furling in a smile. His fingers lace with hers, causing all the tension in Leslie’s shoulders to leave and she can feel her own smile start to form. 

“Sounds awesome. I promise I’ll pick a good place, okay?”

“I don’t doubt it.” She reassures him.

Ben suddenly drops her hand and reaches into his pocket, pulling out his phone and handing it to her. 

“So that just in case I think you’re ignoring me again, I can go ahead and clear it up.” He teases and she giggles, but nods and punches in her 10 digit number into his keypad before saving it under the name ‘Best Barista Ever’, to which he laughs and nods. Ben glances at his watch and frowns. 

“What?” Leslie asks. 

“I have class in about ten minutes and as much as I’d love walking you back to your dorm, I need to go.” Leslie nods her head in understanding. Ben’s hand reaches up and carefully brushes a loose curl away from her face before leaning down to press his soft lips to her cheek. 

“I’ll see you tomorrow.” He whispers before turning around and beginning to brisk walk to his next class, leaving Leslie standing in the middle of the quad with a goofy grin on her face. 

\---


End file.
